Signatures (Basic): Three ways to Use E-Signing on TaxDome
Using electronic signatures allows clients to sign important documents and agreements, such as proposals or regular payments, from their phones or computers, which saves everyone time. E-signatures are just as legally binding as putting pen to paper. Plus, you can also request e-signatures from more than one person for the same document.
Covered here:
- E-signatures, explained
- Requesting clients to e-sign completed documents and forms
- Requesting clients to e-sign an agreement with your firm
- Requesting clients to e-sign the agreement that includes regular payments to your firm
E-Signatures, Explained
Electronic signatures have been recognized by law in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia since the early 2000s. An e-signature is just as valid as a handwritten signature, but clients don’t have to take time from their busy schedules to print, sign, make copies and mail a document back via regular mail. Instead, they e-sign documents and accept agreements on their TaxDome portal.
There are three ways to use electronic signatures on TaxDome:
- Requesting clients to e-sign completed documents and forms
- Requesting clients to e-sign an agreements with your firm
- Requesting clients to e-sign an agreement that includes regular payments to your firm
Requesting clients to e-sign completed documents and forms
Here's how to use e-signatures with our Request Signature feature:
1. Upload the document.
2. Go to Documents, click the three dots to the far right of the PDF, then click Request Signature in the pull-down.
3. Choose the signer manually in the Choose signer drop-down or apply a signature template.
4. Indicate where the client needs to add their signature.
5. Add as many e-signature fields as you need, one for each signer.
6. Add a custom message for the client.
7. Add any number of date and free-text fields to request any information you need from a client.
8. Add your or your team members' e-signatures to documents.
Here’s what e-signing looks like for the client:
9. Once the client has e-signed, you’re alerted with a notification in your email and Inbox+. The completed document is visible in the client account profile, and it's downloadable.
Note! TaxDome does not currently support e-signatures for password-protected documents.
Tip! Read more about requesting e-signatures from clients
Requesting clients to e-sign an agreement with your firm
Here's how to use e-signatures with our Proposals & ELs feature:
1. Create proposal templates for your agreements. You won’t need to mark up the document with e-signatures fields; an e-signature request and an agreement to terms are automatically added to the proposal template.
2. Edit templates and send proposals to clients for e-signing.
3. All contacts with a Signatory authority that are linked to the client's account will be prompted to e-sign the proposal from their client portal. The proposal is signed when all of the parties have added their e-signatures. If you added an invoice on proposal acceptance, at least one of the contacts will have to enter their payment details to proceed.
Here’s what the e-signing process looks like for the client:
4. Once your clients have e-signed, you are alerted with a notification in your email and Inbox+. The completed proposal is visible in the client account profile. By clicking the name of the proposal, you can see the client's signature, along with the date and time stamp.
Tip! Read more on using the Proposals & ELs feature to send engagement letters and proposals.
Requesting clients to e-sign an agreement that includes regular payments to your firm
Here's how to use e-signatures with our Recurring invoices feature:
1. Create the recurring invoice with automatic payment authorization. You won’t need to mark it up with e-signatures fields; an e-signature request and an agreement to terms are automatically added to the recurring invoice.
2. All contacts with a signatory authority that are linked to the client account will be prompted to e-sign the recurring invoice from their client portal. However, a single signature is enough for accepting a recurring invoice.
Here’s what the e-signing process looks like for the client:
4. Once your clients have e-signed, you are alerted with a notification in your email and Inbox+; the client's credit card/bank account will be charged automatically in accordance with a schedule inlined in the recurring invoice.
Tip! Read more about how to use recurring invoices.